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Over the past few weeks, the seventh-grade students have been creating videos based on words from a verse from the Psalms. After learning about Creative Commons Copyright, students used copyright friendly websites to find images and music for their video. They then used iMovie to add the photos, used the Ken Burns effect to add movement to the still images, and then added titles, credits, and music. This is always one of my favorite projects – the videos are beautiful and truly reflect God’s creation.

Below are posted the videos that had no proofreading mistakes. (I will post additional videos as students make corrections.)

The 7th-grade students recently completed a unit using Keynote to learn about Sketchnotes. They used my #EveryoneCanSketchnote workbook to learn the basics about sketchnotes while using tricks to work, draw, trace, and animate in Keynote. (Click the link for FREE download of the Keynote workbook.) They LOVED using our Apple Pencils while working through this unit!

After using the workbook, students used Keynote to make sketchnotes based on content from their Science or Social Studies class. (Scroll down to see their sketchnotes.) After they finished their sketchnotes, many students explored using the animation features in Keynote to add animations to their sketchnote. Here is an outstanding example from Kennedy (who loves to animate in Keynote and does it in her spare time even!)

Students, your sketchnotes were amazing! I loved taking a closer look at them as I was grading them. Here is a gallery showing everyone’s sketchnotes. Click on the image to see a larger view.

What did you think of the workbook activities we did at the beginning in Keynote? What did you learn from them? Do you have any suggestions on how I could make the workbook better for future students? (I really would like to know your suggestions – please give MY project feedback!)

What did you learn about sketchnotes, Keynote, and/or the Apple Pencil?

What were your strengths in your sketchnote? What is something you could improve next time?

Over the past few weeks, the seventh-grade students have been creating videos based on words from a verse from the Psalms. After learning about Creative Commons Copyright, students used copyright friendly websites to find images and music for their video. They then used iMovie to add the photos, used the Ken Burns effect to add movement to the still images, and then added titles, credits, and music. This is always one of my favorite projects – the videos are beautiful and truly reflect God’s creation.

Below are posted the videos that had no proofreading mistakes. (I will post additional videos as students make corrections.)

About a month ago, my missionary friend Martha Matzke, contacted me about a game that she was wanting to make about the Solomon Islands similar to the game Ticket to Ride. She was curious about how hard it would be to 3D print game pieces modeled after the boats in the Solomon Islands. I thought this would be a great project for my middle school multimedia tech class that would combine 3D design with real-life service!

Today we launched the project by Skyping with Martha in the Solomon Islands. (Note; it was 2 pm Monday for us, but 6 am Tuesday for her!) Students learned a bit about their ministry with Wycliffe Bible Translation. Martha then explained the game they wanted to make and what they needed with their game pieces.

Students quickly started exploring the Morphi app and Tinkercad website to see which platform they wanted to use for their design. Tomorrow they will select the kind of boat they will be creating and start their building in earnest! I can’t wait to see what they design.

Our Life Lesson Selfie Video project is a good way for students to creatively many of the multimedia skills that we have worked on during the semester. They used iPads to film themselves sharing 5 “Life Lessons” that were both serious and funny. Many students used filter, photo cam, and green screen apps to film their lesson clips. Then the clips were downloaded onto our Mac computers, where students used iMovie to edit the clips and add titles, music, voiceovers, and other effects. The students were very creative with how the edited their videos together. Here are their videos:

Our Middle School multimedia tech class has been working through the 5 step design process while designing bubble wands using the Morphi app. The challenge was to see if students could improve the ability to blow bubbles (better), make it blow cooler bubbles (bolder), and then make the design of the wand look interesting (beautiful).

Students began with designs using exact measurement.

Some first designs were not very successful! LOL!

Students worked through several iterations of designs to address design flaws and to add decorative features. We used our Dremel 3D20 and 3D40 printers to print our projects. Above you can see examples that show how the designs evolved. Below, you can see some of the bubble wands in action!!

Each student created blog posts talking about how they planned and worked through this project. Click here to see their posts:

UPDATE: We were able to have a Google Hangout with Sophia, the developer of the Morphi app! Students enjoyed learning more about app development and shared some suggestions for features to add to Morphi.

The middle school tech class has been working on recording selfie videos to share 5 life lessons. Here are some shots of the students recording their clips. Now they are using iMovie on their computer to combine all the clips together into one video. While working on this project they will be using workflows to download video and music. They also will be using many of the editing feature in iMovie including transitions, titles, and effects.

Recently, the Middle School multimedia class worked through a 5 Step Design Process to create a custom 3D Container. Here is the process they have been working through over the past few weeks.

We began the process by brainstorming ideas about containers that could meet a specific need for a specific audience.

Students researched online to clarify their ideas by looking at other ways people may have designed a solution.

Next students developed a prototype for their idea. They began by building a life sized model using file folder cardboard. Students had to keep the size within 90 mm wide, long, and tall (to limit the amount of filament and time their design would require to print.) This step was trickier than it appeared at first because measurements needed to be precise. Sometimes it was hard to translate the ideas they had in their head into an actual model. Most of these models were fairly simple variations of a box.

Before moving into Tinkercad to begin their design in 3D, each student had to write a blog post explaining their idea. Classmates used comments to give feedback and to ask thoughtful questions that helped to clarify ideas. (You can view student blog posts here – search using “3D” to find the posts that relate to this project.)

Then students then built their prototypes using the online Tinkercad website. We printed the beta version of their designs using our Dremel 3D40 and 3D20 Ideabuilder printers. Some designs failed to print successfully or were printed only part way when size or other issues appeared. Other designs needed revisions to better fit the objects they were supposed to contain or to address flaws in the designs. We held a class focus group for each printed design to help students evaluate and think about ways to improve their containers. Students wrote a second blog post documenting and evaluating their prototype.

It really helped for students to be able to hold their design in their hand as they evaluated on their first version. Then students went back into Tinkercad and reworked their design to address flaws and difficulties. The second or third iteration of their designs showed thoughtful improvements. Students were also challenged to add a visual element to further customize their container. Many students used flaticon.com website to search for .svg files which could be uploaded into Tinkercad and added to their design. Here are a few examples of how student designs evolved:

The last step in our Design Process was for students to write a final blog post to show their project, explain their revisions, and reflect on their process. Students did an excellent job discussing how they had improved their designs as well as thinking about areas they could still improve.

Students were overwhelmingly positive about using this design process to create in 3D! They loved that they had freedom to come up with an idea and create it from scratch. They felt a sense of accomplishment and pride as they saw their containers evolve and improve. Their blog posts demonstrated evaluative thinking throughout the process – all important 21st century skills!

The sixth graders recently completed a unit on creating digital sketchnotes. They created a “how to” sketchnote which included all the elements which they learned about from our tutorials. (See earlier post if you are interested in the tutorials that we used.) The students choose between the Flipink, Sketchbook X, and Tayasui Sketches Pro apps to make their sketchnotes. Here is their work – click on an image to view it larger!

After our lesson, I was very impressed with all the students who used the sketchnote strategy while listening in chapel. Check out their work!